Author: Ludwig van Beethoven,Willi Reich

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: Musicians

Page: 276

View: 2300

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Author: Alessandra Comini

Publisher: Sunstone Press

ISBN: 0865346615

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 480

View: 9177

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In this unique study of the myth-making process across two centuries, Comini examines the contradictory imagery of Beethoven in contemporary verbal accounts, and in some 200 paintings, prints, sculptures, and monuments.

Author: N.A

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: History

Page: N.A

View: 3091

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Author: Russell Martin

Publisher: Crown

ISBN: 0767910818

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 288

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The basis for the movie of the same name, an astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America. When Ludwig van Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the great composer, snipping a lock of Beethoven's hair as a keepsake--as was custom at the time--in the process. For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews. After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago. The results, revealed for the first time here, are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence. In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, a tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science.

Author: Hector Berlioz

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

ISBN: 9780252069420

Category: Music

Page: 165

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A daring composer in his own right, Hector Berlioz made a considerable reputation and a modest living for himself writing about music. This compact volume gathers brief, pithy essays Berlioz wrote on Beethoven's nine symphonies, his opera, Fidelio, and his piano sonatas and trios. Berlioz vividly depicts the salient features of the music with observations that are acute and passionate, as valuable for musicians as for amateurs. Beyond its astute commentary on the music, however, Berlioz's book offers a rare firsthand look at the reception and reputation accorded Beethoven's music in the decades following his death. Berlioz transcribes the comments of amateurs leaving the conservatoire after a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and provides a mocking glimpse of the French appreciation of the great German composer: What stands in the way of the music of 'Fidelio' as regards the Parisian public is ... the great disdain of the composer for sonorous effects which are not justified. He addresses Beethoven's skillful use of the orchestra as an instrument of drama and the general disapprobation that greeted this approach. He also includes a satirical piece on the fad of calling up the spirit of a composer and transcribing new, posthumous compositions. Berlioz's essays testify to the tumult caused by Beethoven's music in his time and offer ways to approach the music that remain enlightening and fresh.

Author: Robin Wallace

Publisher: CUP Archive

ISBN: 9780521386340

Category: Literary Collections

Page: 194

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This 1990 book is a survey of the critical reaction to Beethoven's music as it appeared in the major musical journals, French as well as German, of his day, and represents the first published history of Beethoven reception. The author discusses the philosophical and analytical implications of these reviews and reassesses what has come to be the accepted view of a nineteenth-century musical aesthetics rooted in Romantic Idealism. Wallace sees Beethoven's critics as in fact providing a link between two apparently antithetical approaches to music: the eighteenth-century emphasis on expression and extra-musical interpretation and the nineteenth-century emphasis on 'absolute' music and formal analysis. This book thus provides, in addition to a carefully documented study of Beethoven's critical reception, a re-evaluation of his oeuvre and its significance in music history. An index of all reviews cited is provided, and a further appendix contains the quoted material in its original language.

Author: William Kinderman

Publisher: Clarendon Press

ISBN: 9780198161981

Category: Music

Page: 220

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Beethoven's Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, his longest and most complex piece for piano, stands beside the Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, and the late quartets as one of the monumental achievements of his last period. In this first extended study of these variations, William Kinderman investigates their compositional origins and explores them in the context of Beethoven's other works of this time. Kinderman shows how the composer transforms, parodies, and ultimately transcends Diabelli's commonplace waltz in a fascinating series of historical allusions to other composers in the final variations. Kinderman's discussion provides considerable insight into Beethoven's working methods and illuminates the structure of the finished work, and ultimately the nature of the creative process itself. This new reissue of Kinderman's classic text includes a free CD of his celebrated recording of the Diabelli Variations, described by Andras Schiff as "a very vivid sounding experience."

Author: Nancy November

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 1107035457

Category: Music

Page: 295

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The first detailed contextual study of Beethoven's middle-period quartets, encompassing reception history, early performance practices, aesthetic contexts and theatrical impetus.

Author: Russell Martin Lydia Nibley

Publisher: Charlesbridge

ISBN: 1607341352

Category: Juvenile Nonfiction

Page: 128

View: 3386

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Introduces the life of the Austrian composer, along with the story of a lock of his hair cut by a barber after his death, which was kept by various owners and the analysis of which revealed the high level of lead present in the composer's body.

Author: Stewart Gordon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0190629207

Category: Music

Page: 224

View: 4617

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The thirty-two Piano Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven form one of the most important segments of piano literature. In this accessible, compact, and comprehensive guidebook, renowned performer and pedagogue Stewart Gordon presents the pianist with historical insights and practical instructional tools for interpreting the pieces. In the opening chapters of Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas, Gordon illuminates the essential historical context behind common performance problems, discussing Beethoven's own pianos and how they relate to compositional style and demands in the pieces, and addressing textual issues, performance practices, and nuances of the composer's manuscript inscriptions. In outlining patterns of structure, sonority, keyboard technique, and emotional meaning evident across Beethoven's compositional development, Gordon provides important background and technical information key to understanding his works in context. Part II of the book presents each sonata in an outline-chart format, giving the student and teacher ready access to essential information, interpretive choices, and technical challenges in the individual works, measure by measure, all in one handy reference source. In consideration of the broad diversity of today's Beethoven interpreters, Gordon avoids one-size-fits-all solutions or giving undue weight to his own tastes and preferences. Instead, he puts the choices in the hands of the performers, enabling them to create their own personal relationship with the music and a more powerful performance.